Dragon Her Back (Entangled Covet) (15 page)

“It was the start of the gala. I would’ve had a revolt on my hands,” Alec said. “Besides, I needed some time to think.”

Darius said nothing.

“This is a bad situation. Not only are there still water dragons in the kingdom, Leo tells me there’s an entire fold of them who have lived undetected with the aid of the Vietnamese. A treasonable action.”

Darius nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” Alec asked. “Why didn’t Mei tell me?”

“I didn’t tell you because I was gathering information so that when I brought it to you, you would be ready to make the right decision. Li surprised me. I didn’t expect him to attack Mei.”

“That is unacceptable.” Alec leaned forward. “As is the way they apparently keep their women in servitude.”

“You can’t support Darius and Mei,” Leo interjected. “At least not publicly.”

“Why not?” Darius’s hackles rose and his dragon, beaten down as he was, stretched for a fight. “We’ve both been loyal to the king.”

“You broke the law. You slept with a mated dragon.”

“Please.” Darius turned his head away in anger. “She is
my
rightful mate, not his. If you rule in his favor and return her to him, what’s to keep anyone from claiming a mate where there is no fated paring?”

“True,” Alec said. “But if I side with you, I’ll have a war on my hands.”

“You’ve managed to bring the kingdom to the point of civil war,” Leo said.

“Enough, Leo,” Alec said. “Sheath your fangs. You would do the same any day of the week for your mate. We all would.”

A surge of hope filled him that Alec seemed to want to find a favorable solution. “It’s not fair, or just, to exclude a whole race of dragons from the kingdom because of the actions of a few, whether in ancient times or now.”

“But the fact they act the same hundreds of years later should be cause for concern,” Leo said.

“Agreed,” Alec said to both of them. “So how do we bring them into the kingdom without visiting this vileness on our own houses and on others?”

“Li has to go.” Darius leaned forward. “A public fight, as in the olden times, to determine the outcome.”

“I saw him fly,” Alec said. “That would hardly be fair. You would crush him.”

“In our human forms then.”

Leo looked thoughtful. “It could work, but it needs to happen now to mitigate the damage. Dragons are staying over from the gala to see how you handle this.”

“Now works for me.” Though his words were confident, doubt rang through his mind. His body was not yet whole.

Not by a long shot.

“What if you lose?” Alec looked at Darius full in the face across the table. “Mei will be sent back with them. I’ll have no choice but to honor his claim.”

“I won’t lose.”

He wouldn’t. Or if he did, he would take that bastard Li with him to Hell.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Scott held Mei’s elbow and turned his head to hers, so that it looked like they discussed something of great importance as they hurried from the security center. In the hall, he stopped against the left wall. “The cameras can’t see your face here.”

“I don’t want to leave him,” she whispered, aware that anyone could come upon them. Even though she’d donned the disguise again, her face was revealed behind the glasses.

“He said to take you to his suite, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Go back inside.” She was worried about what would happen between Darius and Leo. “He might need you, and I’ll be fine.”

Her own safety was secondary to Darius’s. She’d never seen him so pale, or hurt, or utterly lacking in strength.

Scott looked over her shoulder, and she could tell he was considering the best action.

“I’ll be fine,” she repeated. “He needs you in there with him.”

Scott nodded and walked back to the security center without a backward glance.

Mei dipped her head and hurried down the corridor to the main congregating area. This time, she heard the chatter of the visiting dragons with sharp precision. She circled the sitting areas and branched to the north toward Darius’s private quarters.

In the narrow hall, she saw Tee walking toward her with her head down. She stared at her phone with the usual obliviousness it seemed all humans, and especially Tee, exhibited. Her long brown legs peeked out from a whimsical, blue-sky colored skirted suit, as if she walked on cloud nine and hadn’t a care in the world.

Tee looked up suddenly and stopped. She narrowed her eyes as if she was picking up on an extra-sensory emotion. Mei stood caught-in-the-headlights still. There was nowhere she could hide in the long hallway.

Tee put her hands on her hips, and Mei knew she’d been recognized.

“Come on.” Tee motioned her head to a closed door on her right before stepping through it herself.

Mei followed her into a conference room with an elaborate walnut table in the middle and matching chairs nestled around it. Tee sat on the table, her legs swinging off the edge. “You aren’t going to eat me, are you?”

“No.” Mei pulled the glasses from her face and ran a shaky hand over her forehead, dislodging the blond wig. “I’m so sorry I was awful to you. I didn’t mean it. Any of it.”

Tee lifted elegant brows, which said she wasn’t yet forgiven.

“I’ve been going through a lot of stuff,” Mei stammered. “I’m a water dragon. Do you know what that means?”

“I do now.” Tee still looked unimpressed, reminding her vaguely of Lana with her hardened expression.

“I’ve been hiding so much.” Mei’s voice broke. “It all broke down at the same time. I never meant to take things out on you.”

Tee sighed and stood. She walked to Mei and wrapped her arms around her. Mei hugged her back, letting the warmth of Tee’s arms and affection soak all the way to her grateful soul.

“I’m so sorry,” Mei said, emotion welling a wedge in her throat.

“You just scared me.” Tee pushed Mei back to stare fierce brown eyes at her. “Don’t do that again.”

“I won’t.”

“Okay, then.” Tee nodded. “We’re good.”

“Thank you.” Mei stepped back, needing some air.

“That’s officially the most you have ever hugged me.” Tee laughed easily, mirth returning to her as if she’d flipped a switch.

“I’m trying to do better and let the people I love know it.”

Tee lifted her brows. “Really?”

“Really.” Sadness filled her for all the years she’d lost. “I’m glad I got a chance to tell you in person.”

“Leo is on the warpath for you and nothing I say will calm him down.” Tee put her hand to her heart, making the silver bangles on her wrist chime. “This bond thing.” She shook her long dark hair. “He knows everything.”

“I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about Darius.”

“I heard you’ve a husband you never told us about.” Tee let a teasing, disgruntled tone color her words.

All the words of explanation cluttered her throat, so it felt hard to breathe. “He abused me. I escaped. I thought he would never find me, and then I thought he didn’t care.”

Tee put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then let it drop. “You should have told us. We would have helped you.”

“I know.” They would have, she realized. They would have helped her head off this awful mess.

“You’re safe now,” Tee said. “Leo said Darius could take Li with his hands tied.”

She’d been on the other side of those fists before and knew Li didn’t fight fair. Terror that Darius’s life hung in the balance hit her with the full force of a sledgehammer, and the room spun around her.

“This is all my fault.”

Tee reached for her cold hand and squeezed it. “No one should have to live like you did over there.” Tee’s hand on hers felt restraining, pitying—as if she was still a victim of Li’s blows. “The Vietnamese are singing, in five octaves now, everything they know about the water dragons.”

“Oh.” Everyone now knew her hidden shame. She could hardly bear it. Her skin seemed turned inside out, its protective layer gone, so that she was raw and vulnerable to the slightest poke.

Her head whirled as if she was sucked down a vortex, never to surface.

She disengaged gently from Tee and put her hands on a chair back, breathing determinedly and fighting for equilibrium.

“You okay?” Tee asked.

“Yes.” But she wasn’t, not really. She’d pushed it all under, hidden the pain. Her body had healed, but the emotional wounds ran deep, and now they were wide open.

“You sure?” Tee asked. “You don’t look so good.”

“Darius…” Her throat tightened around the words. “If I go with Li now, at least I’ll know he’ll be safe.”

“Darius will be fine.”

Mei wasn’t so sure. Tee wiped tears from her cheeks Mei hadn’t known she’d shed. She was a damn leaky faucet today.

Tears never helped anything. If Li saw them, it would make things worse. He loved to see her cry. She tried and failed to get her rioting emotions on an even keel but stuffing them under only made her knees buckle. She took a deep breath, then three more. Pulling the air into her lungs, trying to think past her panic.

“You don’t need this disguise anymore.” Tee pulled off the lab coat and gave a grunt of shock at the mermaid outfit.

“Wow,” Tee said. “Just wow.”

“It worked,” Mei managed numbly. “Got me inside.”

“I bet it did.” Tee pulled off her light blue jacket, stuffed Mei’s arms into the sleeves, and buttoned it up. She finger combed black wisps of disarrayed hair away from Mei’s face. “Much better. Come on. Let’s go find Jane and Leo.”

Tee led her by the hand into the hallway, back out to the common room, and onto the football field sized grass roof.

Mei followed, still in a daze of indecision.

Human-formed dragons congregated everywhere and parted respectfully in front of them—such was Tee’s status as Leo’s mate. He had made sure every dragon gave her the deference she deserved so that she was free to move around safely without a bodyguard.

“I sense Leo out here somewhere,” Tee said as her gaze swept the roof.

Ahead of them, Leo stood next to Alec in front of six of the king’s other lieutenants. Their wide-legged stance, uniformly facing the casino, said something was about to happen. Something important.

All the dragons sensed it, too. They gathered at the edges of the patio with expectant looks on their faces. Those still inside filed out onto the grass, their loud chatter hushed. Under their breaths, their unanswered questions rippled through the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Mei asked Tee the question on everyone’s lips.

Tee looked sideways at her with a frown on her face. “I’m not sure.”

Alec’s assessing gaze stopped on them as they threaded through the crowd. A muscle twitched in the side of his face as if he gritted his teeth, but he gave no other hint that he had seen her.

Mei slipped back on her glasses, needing a barrier between her and her former colleagues and friends.

“Stop it.” Tee squeezed her hand. “You stand proud and tall here. You’ve nothing to feel guilty for.”

But she did. She had lied to them all, too, and put Darius in harm’s way.

Music started in the background with the strums of a guitar trio as Tee stepped next to Leo and kissed his cheek.

Leo swept Mei with a derisive glance. “Nice of you to join us,” he said so that only the three of them could hear.

“What’s going on?” Tee asked, lacing her hand with his in an easy, unconscious joining.

A lump tightened Mei’s throat at the loving gesture between the mates. Would she ever be able to hold Darius’s hand like that again? Would things ever be
easy
between them?

“Darius and Li will fight for the right to Mei.”

“What?” Her head whipped to the entrance to see Darius walking into the casino shadows between several more of Alec’s lieutenants.

Darius, s
he called to him. Whereas before there had been a muffled void around her mind, now her thoughts were sharp and crystalline.

His mind touched hers, and she rocked into Tee’s side before straightening.

I
’
m here with Leo and Tee.

Go!
he shouted in her head, making her flinch against the volume
. The whole bunch of them could turn on you!

Leo gave her an assessing look. “I imagine he’s not happy you’re here in the middle of all this?”

She nodded and turned her attention back to Darius.
Don
’
t do this.
Mei flung the desperate words at him.

Darius stepped to the common area, staring at her with his pale blue eyes. He wore loose white karate pants with a deep blue sash at the waist. His hands swung free, and he walked of his own accord. He wasn’t restrained, just hedged in and separated from the crowd by Alec’s men. She stepped toward him, but Leo put his hand around her wrist. Restraining her, but not hurting her.

Stay by Leo. No matter what happens.
Darius’s words tunneled into her heart.

Alec cleared his throat, and the crowd immediately quieted, so that you could hear the wind rushing over the side of the casino rooftop.

“We’ve gathered to settle a dispute between the water dragons of the Crescent Islands and the ice dragon of the House Dachien.”

An angry rumble went through the crowd, directed at the water dragons.

Even if Darius won, the kingdom would never accept the water dragons. Even if Alec insisted, it would fracture the peace. She would be just as exiled as she was back on the sunbaked misery of the islands. Acceptance wouldn’t happen in her lifetime or Darius’s.

He fought and risked his life for nothing.

“…Li Xing and Darius Dachian will fight by mortal combat,” Alec said.

“No.” Mei spoke the word, but only Tee and Leo heard it.

“Mei.” Leo’s restraining hand squeezed her wrist gently. “He’s well able to put this vermin down.”

Tee laced her palm through hers again, but unlike the comfort she knew Tee and Leo’s joined hands contained, Tee’s hand over hers felt too tight.

Darius picked up a stick and sparred on the side with one of the lieutenants, while Alec droned on about ceremony this and ceremony that.

“I have to stop this.”

“No.” Leo said. “That’s the worst thing you could try to do.”

Mei shook her head, rejecting his words.

“It would upset him right now.” Leo leaned close to speak in her ear. “If I need to have you removed, I will.”

Mei looked into his eyes. They were flat and unflinching.

Tee shook her arm to get her full attention. “Darius will beat his
bloody
ass.” Her use of Leo’s curse words would have been funny on any other day. “Okay?”

Mei nodded, but numb horror started at her feet, shook her ankles, then climbed to her knees and chest. She was lightheaded with fear, only held down by Leo and Tee like an overfilled helium balloon ready to pop.

Li stepped onto the roof, a water dragon at each side.

Mei’s vision shrunk to a tunnel with him at the center. She’d not seen him in his human form in many years, and now she felt flung into the past. He still looked as handsome as the day they were married, when she had thought he was her Prince Charming and they would live happily ever after. How could one so evil be so visibly unaffected by his actions? He wasn’t a big man compared to the land dragons, but he seemed huge and menacing to her. She shrank back, closer to Tee’s side.

Darius and Li stepped to the center of the grass roof, and Alec joined them to talk to them privately. He tied a red rope around their left wrists, making much ado about securing the knots.

The two each had one fist and two legs to fight. The close quartered fighting would make it much harder to inflict lethal wounds.

Did Alec intend for them to have a casual spar?

He didn’t know Li like she did.

Panic grew in Mei, but she had no time to act. Li didn’t wait for Alec to start the fight. He jumped into the air and kicked Darius hard with the ball of his foot.

Darius fell to the ground, but regained his footing with a smug smile. He tugged Li forward, unbalancing him, before smashing his knee into Li’s stomach.

Li cried out as he fell, and Mei heard the sound reverberate in her ears. It was a sound she’d never heard from Li’s lips, ever: pain.

The other water dragons stepped forward to aid him but were quickly restrained by Alec’s lieutenants.

Li lashed a foot upward from the ground, catching Darius’s ankle and toppling him to his back. Mei inhaled hard, and her heart sped into overdrive.

Darius lay still and unmoving.

Li jumped on top of Darius, his fist raised overhead, but Darius punched him from below, one, two, three punches that snapped Li’s neck back and forth like a puppet on a jerking string. Blood ran down Li’s face from his mouth. The smell of it reached her, metallic and acrid, making her stomach recoil.

Darius punched Li again, and he fell on the grass.

“This will be over soon,” Leo said.

Hope and excitement had her stretching forward on her tiptoes, waiting for the final blow to end the fight.